


The Infinite Maw: A Max Starfield Story

by ThreeBulletNecklace



Series: Max Starfield [3]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Crossover, F/F, Grief/Mourning, IN SPACE!, Jedi, LGBTQ Themes, Lesbian Character, Lesbians in Space, Max Starfield, Sith, Star Wars - Freeform, The Force, The Force Ships It, The Maw, Wakes & Funerals, i swear i'm physically incapable of writing anything under 7000 words, life is strange au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 04:41:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21293729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreeBulletNecklace/pseuds/ThreeBulletNecklace
Summary: A few weeks after their trip back to the Arcadia, Max Starfield has a plan to help Chloe work through her grief over Rachel. That plan? Return to The Maw, destroy the installation there, and give Rachel the justice she deserves. Will that plan go off without a hitch? Probably not.
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Caulfield/Chloe Price
Series: Max Starfield [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1177856
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31





	The Infinite Maw: A Max Starfield Story

**Author's Note:**

> Woo, 5 months between updates. I did want to get this out much sooner, but Real Life has unfortunately been a cruel mistress. and the last few months have been packed with varying amounts of bullshit. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one-shot.
> 
> Thanks as ever to r_darkstorm for beta'ing and putting up with me.

**The Infinite Maw:**

**A Max Starfield Story**

  
  


"Chloe, sweetie, can we talk?" Max said, as she entered the living space of the  _ Amber Star  _ in her usual, quiet way. 

Chloe looked up from the issue of  _ Twi'leks With Blasters  _ she had been 'reading' on a datapad. "Sure. Although calling me ' _ sweetie'  _ is always gonna make me hella suspicious" She said. "So what's got your panties in a twist? Nothing serious, I hope." She joked. 

When she saw that Max was, indeed, serious, the grin faded from her face. "Shit. Okay, what's up?" She laid the datapad to the side, its 'articles' immediately forgotten about. 

Max sat down on the couch next to her, twisting her hands apprehensively in her lap. "It's about Rachel." She said slowly. She looked directly into Chloe's eyes as she said it, trying to gauge what her response would be. 

Chloe sighed, and looked away. "And I  _ was _ having such a good day." She said, sardonically. "Can we do this another time maybe? I'm just - just not in the mood today."

"That's exactly the point." Said Max. "Sometimes you're happy to talk about her. Sometimes you're not. And sometimes I feel like you're gonna bite my head off just for mentioning her."

Chloe bristled slightly, crossing her arms over her chest. "I mean, it's a personal thing." She said defensively. 

"Again, that's my point." Max gently explained. "It  _ is _ a personal thing for you, incredibly so. It's why I've tried about a hundred times to bring this up over the last few weeks and chickened out every time. But if you'll let me, I wanna help you."

Chloe narrowed her eyes. "... How?" She eventually said. 

"I think you need some closure." Max stated. "You're obviously still hurting, and I know losing someone you love can take years to heal, if it heals at all, but I think we can do something that will, well, help."

"And that is…?" 

"We go back to the Maw." Max said. "We get her body back, and you get to say properly say goodbye."

For a long minute, Chloe was deathly silent. She sat still, not moving a muscle. 

"I don't know." Chloe swallowed. She laced her fingers together, squeezing until her knuckles were white. "Going back once was hard enough. I don't… I don't know if I can-" 

"You can." Max affirmed. "You're strong, and brave, and I love you. You can do this." She laid a hand on top of Chloe's. 

Chloe hung her head, and shut her eyes. She breathed in, and then out. 

Her hands relaxed. 

"Let's do it, you've convinced me." Chloe said. "But I have one condition."

"Name it."

Chloe looked up, and Max could see cold fury overflowing in her eyes. 

"That place took everything from me. I wanna drop a bomb on it and turn it to fucking glass."  
  
  


* * *

"We're almost there." Chloe looked up from the console, her face lit by the infinite whirlpool of hyperspace. "BR-OO-K3 says five standard minutes."

Max nodded. She checked the seals on her suit for what felt like the thousandth time. "Let's go through the plan, one more time."

Chloe nodded. "Rocket pack in to avoid detection. You cut an entrance for us. Once inside, find an operations room, and use that to locate where they're keeping Rachel. Go get her. Then, shut down the and get the fuck off the station before it falls into a black hole."

"And…?"

"And take the explosives along in case shit goes sideways." Chloe finished. "Which it usually does with us. Don't worry, I got us covered."

Max nodded. She went over her equipment for what must have been the twentieth time. 

"Dude, stop. You're making me nervous." Chloe said, only half-jokingly. 

"Just making sure I'm ready." Max said. "You sure these spacesuits are okay?" 

"Well, if they're not, we don't have time to worry." Chloe nodded towards the hyperspace tunnel. "Going sublight in five, four, three…"

The  _ Amber Star  _ burst back into realspace with a noise not unlike the clanging of iron. The Maw lay before them: ravenous, hungry, and made eerily beautiful by the whirling, golden gases and matter that comprised its multitude of accretion disks. In front of it hung the installation, a dark silhouette against a golden backdrop. 

Max couldn't help but shudder. Even though Chiaros had died by her own hand months ago, the Dark Side still gripped the place. 

"W4-R3N, take over." Chloe ordered. "Get us as close as you can without being detected."

W4-R3N beeped an acknowledgement and plugged himself into a dataport. In an instant, Chloe felt him take control of the ship. She got up out of the pilot's seat, and beckoned for Max to do the same. 

"Airlock." She said. 

"Right." Max nodded, and followed the pilot.

Chloe moved to the side, indicating Max should go first. When the ex-Jedi had done so, she turned back towards the battered little astromech droid. 

"Try not to fuck my ship this time." She said. 

W4-R3N blurted something along the lines of "No promises."

Chloe rolled her eyes, and went to join Max. 

"You ready?" She asked as she stepped into the airlock. 

"I think so." Max said. "I've never done something like this before."

"It's easy enough." Chloe reassured her. "Squeeze your left hand for the left thruster. Opposite for the right. The rocket pack is linked to your suit, so it should respond instantly."

"Got it." Max confirmed. 

"And hey, if you fuck up, I can just swoop in like a ridiculously handsome, attractive rince who everybody loves, and rescue you."

Max rolled her eyes, and poked a button on her suit's collar. A helmet unfolded from the back of the neck, the pieces sliding seamlessly into place in seconds. The faceplate came last, closing over her face with a satisfyingly metallic clunk. 

"Let's just do this thing already." Max said. 

Chloe activated her own helmet, and when her head was fully enclosed, gave Max a thumbs up. 

"Ready?" She asked. 

In response, Max reciprocated the thumbs up. 

Chloe nodded, and closed the inner airlock. Then, she opened the outer one. 

It whisked open in less than a second. The air contained within the airlock rushed out into space, taking Max and Chloe with it in sudden, explosive decompression. 

Max yelped. She hadn't expected to be yanked into space so violently, but swiftly recovered. After regaining her bearings, she looked to her right, to find Chloe already adjusting her position with expertly judged micro-bursts from her rocket pack. Her gaze was set upon the station. 

In that moment, Max easily believed that nothing, not even an entire enemy fleet, could have stopped Chloe from reaching her destination. 

"Move to the right." Chloe's voice in her ear brought Max back to the present. "You'll miss the station if you don't."

"Right." Max acknowledged. She squeezed her left hand, igniting the corresponding thruster. The lateral force altered her course, bringing her in line with Chloe's trajectory. A brief burst from the right hand thruster evened her out, their flight paths now perfectly in sync. 

"One minute out." Chloe stated. 

Max nodded, even though she knew Chloe couldn't see it, as her gaze was still trained, laser-like, on the bulky rectangular mass of the Maw Installation. 

"Forty-five seconds."

Max was suddenly incredibly aware of the sound of her own breathing. 

"Thirty seconds."

"Wait, Chloe, how do we brake?" Max said, seized with a sudden panic.

"Flip yourself around." Chloe ordered. Max did so, with Chloe following a second later. 

"Burn your thrusters at full capacity for five seconds on my mark." Chloe said. "Five. Four. Three…"

Throughout the countdown, Max had to force herself to not fire her thrusters early, which proved to be an exceedingly difficult task, given how rapidly the surface of the station was approaching. Max tried not to think of what would happen to her squishy, blood-filled body if the thrusters failed to work. 

"Fire!" Chloe commanded. 

Max squeezed her palms as hard as she could. Flames burst from her rocket pack, instantly slowing her velocity from 'terminal' to 'bruised knees'. Her stomach lurched at the abrupt reversal of G-forces, and she struggled not to retch. 

Chloe appeared to be having no such troubles. "Now!" She ordered, and terminated the burn, only five seconds before impact. 

Max followed suit, and prepared for landing. 

Chloe touched down onto the surface of the station with effortless, military-like precision. Upon contact, she sank onto one knee, and activated her mag-boots to stop herself from simply bouncing off and floating away. 

Max's landing wasn't quite as precise. She managed to angle her feet wrong, and instead of copying Chloe's landing pose, she slipped, and inadvertently propelled her helmet's faceplate straight into the unforgiving durasteel of the hull, causing the right side of her face to slam into the inside of her helmet. 

Max yelped in surprise and pain. Her vision flashed white from the impact, momentarily disorienting her. Unfortunately, this had the effect of causing Max to forget to activate her own mag-boots, and bounce awkwardly off the hull. Realising what was happening, she scrabbled for a handhold, but the surface was already beyond her reach. 

"Max!" Chloe yelled, seeing her partner begin floating off into space. 

For a second, a frenzied, adrenaline-fed burst of terror gripped Max, threatening to overwhelm her. But instead of letting it, she squeezed her eyes shut, took a deep breath, and reminded herself she was in control of her own fate. 

Max opened her eyes, and then felt incredibly silly for panicking: she had the Force. She had never been in any danger. With an internal sigh, Max gave herself a small push, and floated gently back to the surface, where she alighted next to Chloe. 

"I thought you were totally fucked there." The pilot said, sounding breathless. 

"So did I." Max said. "I, uh, kinda forgot I could just use the Force." She admitted. 

Chloe looked at her. "Wow, dude." She said. 

"Yeah, yeah. Save it." Max attempted to brush off the embarrassing incident. "Let's just get inside of this thing."

"After you." Chloe gestured. 

Max nodded. She unclipped her lightsaber, ignited it, and plunged it into the hull's thick outer layer of durasteel. 

Once a large enough hole had been cut, the two women hastily propelled themselves through, only narrowly avoiding bisection by a sectional ray shield designed to plug any hull breaches. 

"That was closer than I'd have liked." Chloe said, dusting herself down. 

"Agreed." Max said. "Where to now?" She looked around - in vain, as it turned out - for any identifying markers, but was met by nothing but irritatingly familiar dull grey corridors.

"Good question." Chloe said. She popped open her helmet, paying it barely any attention as it collapsed back into the collar of her space suit. 

Max followed suit, but as the helmet cleared her face, Chloe let out an impressed whistle. 

"Damn girl," The pilot exclaimed, "You didn't tell me you smacked your face  _ that  _ hard."

Max frowned. "Wha - why? What's up with my face."

Chloe made a  _ 'I'm sorry to have to tell you'  _ face. "You're gonna have, like, the blackest of black eyes, dude."

Max gingerly touched the area around her right eye socket, and winced when her touch caused a sting of pain. "Damn it," she complained, "How bad does it look?"

"Well, it ain't good." Chloe replied. She dug a small holo projector out of a pouch on her belt, pressed a few buttons and brought up a holoscan of Max's face. 

It wasn't pretty. A large bruise was already visibly forming, covering an area from just above her right eyebrow, all the way down to the lower part of her cheek, and of course covering almost the entirety of her eye socket. Purple and yellow discoloration was even visible through the blue tinge of the hologram. 

Max sucked air in through her teeth as she assessed the image. "Well, you weren't wrong." She said. 

"Nope. It's actually almost impressive." Chloe replied. 

"Impressive because of how bad I am at flying, apparently." The ex-Jedi pointed out. 

"You weren't  _ that  _ bad." Chloe argued. 

Max gave her a look. 

"Okay, you were that bad. But at least we made it." Chloe conceded. "You wanna go fix your face up?" 

Max shook her head. "No time. They probably noticed the hole I made. We should find an operations room and use it to locate Rachel."

"Right." Chloe nodded. "Though, uh, this place is pretty lacking in signage. How do we do that?" 

"I might have an idea." Max replied. 

"What's that- oh." Chloe cut herself short when Max closed her eyes, and held out a hand. 

Reaching into the Force, Max focused, looking for any moderate to large concentration of beings that felt right. It didn't take long to find one about two hundred yards away and down one level. 

She opened her eyes. 

"Follow me, I think I've got a lead."

* * *

Fortunately, Max's instincts proved to be entirely correct. The group of beings she had sensed turned out to be the two dozen or so crew of a modest - but perfectly suited to their needs - operations room. 

None of them noticed Max and Chloe as they entered, distracted as they were with the buzz and chatter that naturally came from the constant flow of information needed to run such a large and complex space station. 

Max cleared her throat to gain their attention, and spectacularly failed. Not one person even glanced her way, let alone registered her presence as a threat. Max turned to Chloe and shrugged.  _ I tried _ , the expression on her face communicated. 

Chloe laid a hand on Max's shoulder. "I got this." She proclaimed. She drew her blaster, pointed it at the ceiling, and fired. 

Pandemonium erupted across the operations suite. The closest half of the crew of technicians dove out of their chairs in a panic, resulting in a heap of cowering bodies, quite a few of them curled up in the foetal position. The other half were more organised, with almost all of them turning and drawing their own blasters, with the intent of obliterating the newly perceived threat. 

"Yoink!" Max said, and before even a single person could get a shot off, she yanked the blasters out of their hands with a twist of the Force, including all the crew members still on the floor. She willed every single blaster over to her, where she turned them to point at their former owners. 

The entire room became deathly still. Not one person dared move a muscle. 

"If you know what's good for you, get out." Max growled. For emphasis, she ignited her lightsaber. The crew members didn't need to be told twice; they cleared the room in ten seconds flat, in a mad scramble to get away from the floating blasters and the intimidating woman brandishing a lightsaber. 

"Well, that was easy." Max breathed, and let the blasters drop to the floor with a loud clatter. 

"You're telling me." Chloe agreed. "Have I ever mentioned what a badass you are?" 

"Yes, but I could stand to hear it a little more." Max grinned. 

"So humble, too." Chloe said, with as much sarcasm as she could muster. 

"Flirt with me later, we're here for a reason." Max teased. 

"Right." Chloe said. She approached the nearest console and began scrolling through data entries, eventually landing on a floor plan. "Cold storage." She said. "That's where she'll be."   
  
  


* * *

"Are you ready?" Max asked. She laid a tentative hand on Chloe's shoulder. 

Chloe took a deep breath. Squared her frame. Clenched her jaw. 

"No." She said. "But we don't have time for me to be ready."

Max took her hand. Squeezed tightly. "It's okay." She said. "I'm here for you."

Chloe nodded, and squeezed back. Hesitantly, she reached out, and activated the door mechanism. With a muted  _ whoosh _ , it slid open. The room beyond was empty; bereft of living things, with no movement aside from a boxy maintenance droid slowly making its way across the floor. Otherwise, it was silent. Lifeless. Dead. 

Chloe's grip unconsciously tightened. Max didn't need the Force to know her heart was beating hard and fast. 

"Come on." Max gently prompted. "You can do this."

The pilot nodded again, and took a steadying breath. "I can do this." She repeated, mantra-like. Still gripping Max's hand, Chloe entered the room. 

Max shivered as they crossed the threshold. While her body remained warm, thanks to her space suit, her uncovered head immediately felt a substantial drop in temperature. Max decided cold storage was a decidedly apt name, as the entire room was barely above freezing. Though as cold as it was, Chloe barely seemed to even notice it. 

They walked softly, taking care not to disturb the oppressive silence with any sudden noises. To do so would have felt wrong, somehow, like someone laughing in a mausoleum. Even so, the sound of their feet padding over the floor sounded quietly across the room. 

Along the far wall were two dozen or so hexagonal compartments, built directly into said wall. All but one was empty. 

Chloe nodded towards the occupied compartment. "That's it." She said. 

"Are you sure?" 

Chloe gestured to the empty compartments. “You see any other occupants?"

"Fair point."

The two women approached the compartment, lining up on either side. Automatically, Chloe extended her hand towards the activation button, but a few centimetres short, she hesitated, and looked at Max. 

"Can you?" She quietly asked. 

"Of course." Max replied. She waved a hand, and the button depressed itself. For a second, nothing happened, but then there was a click, the soft hiss of internal hydraulics extending, then the compartment slid smoothly open. 

The first thing Max noticed was how perfectly Rachel's body had been preserved. A stasis field had been employed, shielding her from even the tiniest effect of decay, aside from the neat, blackened hole directly over her heart. If it hadn't been for the deathly pallor of her skin, Max could have easily assumed the young woman was simply sleeping. 

The second thing she noticed just how beautiful Rachel was: perfectly smooth skin complimented delicate features and full lips, and subtly slanted eyes gave her an exotic allure that in life, would have been completely entrancing. Max found herself at once understanding why Chloe had loved this woman so, and wishing she could have known Rachel when she had been alive.

A small, choked noise, however, brought Max out of her own head and back into the real world. 

The noise, of course, came from Chloe. 

Max looked up, and when she saw Chloe's face, she froze, unsure of how to react. 

Chloe's expression was a complex mess of emotions. Max thought she saw adoration, joy, sadness, anger and despair all appear and die within a matter of seconds. It was almost unnerving to watch. 

"Chloe…?" Max tentatively asked. 

Chloe didn't respond. Her eyes were fixed upon Rachel, her stare unwavering, her expression this time indecipherable. 

"Chloe." Max said for a second, much clearer time.

"I didn't…" Chloe began, and immediately stopped again. "I thought seeing her would…" She stopped once more. 

"I miss her so  _ fucking  _ much, Max."

Max reached across the slab and took Chloe's hand. She squeezed it, trying to pour every ounce of affection, sympathy and love she had into the small gesture. "I know." She said. 

Chloe remained silent, but her body language softened, ever so slightly. 

"Did - did she have any family?" Max ventured, after a minute or so of respectful silence. 

Chloe shook her head. "No. Well, yes, but it … it was complicated. She never really talked about them, apart from one time." Chloe paused and cleared her throat. "We got drunk once, like, completely fucked out of our minds, and I guess she must have been in sharing mood for some reason, because she told me she'd run away from home." 

"She ran away?" 

"Yeah. Her dad was some big time governor, hugely popular, loved by everyone and all that shit. But Rachel found out he was - and always had been - a serial cheater. He was bad at it, too. Her mom kept finding him in bed with tons of different women. But her mom could never do anything about it, because of his political reputation." Chloe stopped, and scoffed. “Can you believe that shit, Max?" She shook her head in disdain.

"So they kept up the appearance of a loving, happy family, and her mom suffered in silence while Daddy Dearest was screwing Twi'lek strippers every other night." An ugly expression flashed across Chloe's face. "I wish I'd known Rachel back then, because I would've beaten the shit out of him without a second thought."

"I wouldn't blame you." Max agreed. "So what happened in the end?" 

"I don't know what happened for sure, but I think she just snapped one night, shoved as much shit as she could into a bag, flipped her dad the bird, and left." 

"Just like that?" 

"Just like that." Chloe confirmed. "Rachel was always the impulsive type, so a dramatic exit like that was totally her style."

Max's eyes were saucer-wide in amazement. "I could never do something like that." She said. 

Chloe made a ' _ really _ ' face. "Wait, so I'm  _ not  _ talking to the woman who told the entire Jedi Council to collectively kiss her ass a couple of months ago?" 

Max opened her mouth, closed it, and finally tilted her head in a small movement of acknowledgement. "Fair point." She said. "But still… Rachel sounded amazingly strong, and confident."

"She was." Chloe stared wistfully down at her former partner. "She really,  _ really  _ was."

Max squeezed her hand again. "Come on, let's get her back to the ship, then blow this place to hell."

Chloe started to nod, but hesitated. For a second, it looked as if she was paralysed, but then her brow furrowed in obvious determination, and she looked up at Max. 

"No." She said. 

"No?" 

"I've changed my mind." Chloe explained. "Rachel wouldn't want some normal, boring, average burial on a random backwater planet somewhere. She was fierce, larger-than-life; the kind of person who could turn heads just by walking into a room. And above all else," Chloe said, her expression intensifying, "She was  _ fiery _ ."

Max nodded. "I believe you. What do you want to do?" 

"Well, like you said, we're gonna blow this place to hell anyway," Chloe reasoned, "And there's several gigantic fuckin' black holes out there surrounded by a bunch of burning gas -"

"I think I know where you're going with this." Max interjected with a grin. 

"-So what better way would there be to send her off other than giving her the most epic funeral pyre anyone's ever had?" Chloe finished, also grinning. 

"I think that sounds perfect." Max agreed. "Let's do it."  
  
  


* * *

"Ladies, gentlemen, everyone in between and mono-gendered species," Chloe announced as her and Max walked onto the installation's central command deck, "We are here to wreck your station's shit, and kick all your asses. And if you want to avoid both - especially the former, because we're gonna hurl this mother into a black hole -  _ would you kindly  _ vacate the premises."

"That means get the fuck out." She added, after a moment's confused silence. 

When no one immediately moved, Chloe sighed, removed a flashbang from a pouch, and chucked it into the middle of the command deck. It exploded on impact, bringing with it sheer chaos. 

Screams and panicked shouts erupted from most of the command staff, the majority of whom were caught in the blast. Several guards stationed around the edges of the sizeable room retained enough sense to draw their blasters, but were swiftly relieved of their weapons when Max sent her lightsaber spinning around the room, bisecting each and every one of them into two neat pieces. Max then willed her weapon back to her hand, where it met her palm with a satisfying  _ smack.  _

The now-weaponless guards, realising they were now about as threatening as a spoon, didn't hesitate to turn tail and join the rapidly forming stampede of officers, technicians and operations specialists hurriedly making for the exit furthest away from Max and Chloe, who simply waited patiently for the room to empty itself. 

"Why is it so easy to make these guys run away?" Max remarked when the last soul had fled. 

"I think it  _ might  _ be something to do with the lightsaber, and the seemingly supernatural abilities, and the bad-ass  _ 'don't fuck with me'  _ attitude." Chloe pointedly said. "You know. Just maybe."

"Hush, you." Max said, although trying to conceal the little smile she couldn't help but make whenever Chloe complimented her was an exercise in failure. "Do we do this?" She asked. 

Chloe took a breath in and gave a small, sharp nod. "Yeah. Just, be careful with her, okay?" 

Max nodded reassuringly. "Always."

With a wave of her hand, Max opened the automated doors. Then, with the utmost care and precision, she levitated the stasis slab Rachel's body was on through the entryway. 

"Where should I put her down?" She asked. 

"By the window." Chloe said, pointing to the central viewing port. "I think she deserves a view."

Max nodded again and moved Rachel over. Then, she slowly lowered the slab until it was resting on the floor, making sure Rachel was facing towards the viewing port. Visible outside was the brilliant spectacle of the Maw, with its five black holes surrounded by their eternally burning golden halos of compressed gases, perpetually falling around each other. 

"It's a hell of a sight." Max said. 

"That it is." Chloe agreed. "I know she'd love it." 

A moment or two passed, with both women staring at the grand, but deadly, display a scant few light-seconds away. 

"Come on." Max prompted. "Let's give Rachel the justice she deserves."

"Right." her partner confirmed, and moved to the nearest console. "I'm gonna kill most of the power to the central reactor." Chloe explained. "That should be enough to knock this entire place out of orbit, but still give us enough time to get out safely." She tapped a few buttons, gazing intently at the screen. After a few more seconds, however, her face transformed into a frown. "Shit." She softly cursed. 

"Shit?" 

"Shit." Chloe confirmed. "They've blocked all remote access to the reactor. We're gonna have to take it out manually."

Max shook her head. "Of course they have. Time for Plan B?" 

"I don't think we have any other choice." Chloe sighed. She tapped some more keys. "Gimme a second and I'll copy a route to the reactor."

After she had done so, the pilot made to step towards the door, but then hesitated, looking back at Rachel. 

"I need a minute." She said. 

"Of course." Max said. "I'll wait for you outside." True to her word, the ex-Jedi slipped away, leaving Chloe on her own. 

The pilot knelt down next to Rachel. Initially, she reached out to take her hand, but stopped short, and instead curled her fingers into a loose fist and brought it back to rest on her leg. 

"I'm sorry." Chloe whispered. "You never deserved this. I never should've-" She caught herself before her emotions threatened to overwhelm her again. 

"I loved you." She said. "I still love you, and I think a part of me always will… but I have to let you go." Chloe declared. 

She leaned over, and laid a kiss upon Rachel's forehead. Then, she removed the blue earring Rachel had always worn, and tucked it into a pocket. "I'll never forget you." She vowed. Then, with one last look at the mortal shell that had once been her partner, Chloe left.   
  


* * *

"Sorry," Chloe said once she was back out in the corridor, "I needed-" 

"You don't need to apologise." Max stopped her. "Or explain anything." She reached out and cupped Chloe's cheek. "All that matters is if you're okay." 

"I… I think I am, yeah." Chloe replied. 

Max smiled, but before she could say anything, a harsh, grating alarm that caused their eardrums to vibrate unpleasantly erupted throughout the station. 

"Attention." An automated voice cut sharply through the alarm. "Threat level mynock. Apprehend intruders by any means necessary."

"Threat level  _ mynock?!"  _ Chloe yelled indignantly over the still-blaring alarm. "We're  _ at least _ level rancor you f-" 

The rest of Chloe's tirade was unfortunately lost, as the alarm increased in volume enough to drown out what Max - accurately - presumed were some exceedingly colourful and creative expletives. 

Max tapped her on the arm. 

_ What?  _ Chloe gestured. She then mimed something angry and decidedly rude at the wall-mounted speaker the automated voice had emanated from. 

Max jerked her head in the direction of the reactor. 

Chloe spread her arms in protest, still clearly unhappy about the entire thing. Then, she placed her hand over her heart and pouted, clearly indicating her wounded pride. 

Max gave her  _ The Look _ . Again, she motioned towards the reactor. 

Chloe rolled her eyes, but finally acquiesced. 

_ Thank you  _ Max gestured. She extended an open hand, obviously asking for Chloe's in return. The pilot returned the gesture, and the two women took off at a run, but not before Chloe turned back and flipped off the speaker, determined as she was to get the last word in. 

Miraculously, they met little-to-no resistance as they raced towards the reactor. Their only encounters were a small group of administration staff, who promptly fled when they saw Max and Chloe barrelling towards them, and a lone trooper, who was forced to take an involuntary nap when Max used the Force to slam him into a wall. 

"Are we almost there?" Max yelled over the sound of their feet slapping against the floor and the ever-present alarm. 

"Yeah!" Chloe shouted back. "The reactor access passage should be right around this corner!" 

However, as soon as the words had left her mouth, the alarm fell silent. The two women skidded to a stop, giving each other wary looks. A brief burst of static was heard, and then the now-familiar automated voice flared into being. 

"Attention." it said. "Threat level elevated. New designation: rancor. Terminate intruders with extreme prejudice."

"Hah!" Chloe shrieked. "I  _ fucking  _ knew they were low-balling us!" 

Max stared at her incredulously. "Chloe, they now have explicit permission to  _ murder our faces _ . That's not good."

"Bitch please." Chloe waved a hand dismissively. "We've handled these guys before. They're about as threatening as a life-day cake."

"Even so, we should be more careful." Max argued. "They know we're here. They know the station. For all we know, they could have ambushes lying in wait around literally every corner."

"Alright, point taken." Chloe backed down. "Though we still gotta go through the access passage anyway."

"Right." Max agreed. "Just be ready for anything."

Max's cautious stance proved to be correct. As soon as the two of them stepped around the corner and the door to the access passageway came into view, every single light source suddenly winked out, plunging them into total darkness. 

"See?" Max said. 

"Actually, no." Chloe replied, waving a hand in front of her face. "Literally can't see shit."

Max sighed. "There's definitely an ambush ahead." She reached into the Force, extending her senses directly in front of her. It wasn't a surprise at all to find a dozen troopers beyond the doorway, clustered at the end of the passageway, all pointing blasters their way, ready to tear them to shreds the second they opened the door. 

"Yep." Max confirmed. "Twelve of them, all armed."

"They must have night vision filters." Chloe reasoned. "They're relying on the darkness to incapacitate us. Wait, can you use your 'saber as a torch?" 

"Yes," Max said, "But it'd just blind you especially, and then they'd shoot both of us."

"Shit." Chloe swore. "What do we do?" 

Max thought for a second. "... I might have a plan." She said. "You stay here, and don't move until I call you."

"Okay, lemme rephrase that: what are  _ you _ gonna do?" 

Max smiled to herself. "I'm going to trust in the Force."

"Does that mean I should find some cover?" 

"Yes."

* * *

Within the passageway, the squad commander turned the gamma setting on his filter up by one increment. "Alright, troops." He said. "As soon as that door opens, blast whatever comes through it into oblivion."

There was no acknowledgement from his men. There didn't need to be. Every single one had their blaster trained on the door, ready to decimate their opponents. 

A red light in the centre of the door blinked. The commander tightened his grip on his blaster. Then, the light turned green, and the door hissed open. 

For a brief second, nothing happened, and the squad almost relaxed. Then a vaguely human shaped blur shot through the door, almost too fast for the refresh rate on their helmet filters to catch. 

"Open fire!" The commander screamed. 

The passageway exploded into a barrage of bright red laser fire. Bolts flew everywhere, filling the space with thick smoke as errant shots impacted on every conceivable surface. Within seconds, it was almost impossible to see anything, even with the night vision filters. Even so, the squad kept the barrage up.  _ Nothing _ was going to get past them. 

"Cease fire!" The commander ordered after a further ten seconds of intense firing. 

Instantly, the passageway fell dark and silent once more. After the angry roar of blaster fire, it was almost discomfiting. 

The commander peered intensely into the darkness, straining to see into the thick smoke in order to determine whether anything had survived their onslaught. 

No one dared move a muscle. 

It was at that precise moment Max dropped down from a jutting bar of durasteel she had propped herself behind. 

She alighted gracefully, tucking herself into a forward roll before springing back up onto her feet. 

"That's impossible!" One of the troopers said. 

"Shut up and blast her!" Said another. 

Max closed her eyes, and found the Force. She ignited her lightsaber. 

To the renewed onslaught of blaster bolts, Max may as well have been a phantom. She flowed with balletic grace from one position to the next, dodging as many bolts as she deflected. Within seconds, four troopers were downed by reflected blaster fire, smoke pouring from newly created craters in their heads and chests. 

"Someone  _ fucking shoot her!"  _ Somebody screamed as Max closed in. 

It was the last thing anyone in the passageway said. Max launched herself forward, imbuing her natural momentum with a push from the Force. She coupled this with a sideways twist, sending herself - and her lightsaber - into a deadly spin, effectively transforming her into a highly lethal corkscrew. She flashed past the remaining troopers, lightsaber carving the men into pieces in the midst of a litany of screams. 

By the time she landed back on the floor, not one soul remained alive. 

Max released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "Chloe!" She called. 

The entryway hissed open again, revealing the pilot. 

"Holy shit." Chloe exclaimed softly when she saw how effortlessly Max had taken out the entire squad. 

Max stood at the end of the passage, wreathed in smoke, her still-ignited lightsaber painting the length of the space in an eerie blue glow. A pile of bodies and severed limbs surrounded her, giving the entire scene the air of a particularly macabre painting. 

"You know, every time I think I've gotten used to how badass you are, you go and do something that makes me both really scared, and hella aroused." Chloe said as she gingerly stepped over the bodies strewn haphazardly across the floor. "Scaroused." She finished. 

"Nice portmanteau," Max nodded in approval, "But maybe save the flirting for later. More of them are definitely on their way."

"Of course they are." Chloe sighed, and made her way in the direction of the reactor chamber, with Max in tow. 

The singular entrance to the chamber opened onto a large, circular space. Ovoid panels lined the walls, and an inverted spire protruded down from the ceiling. At the end of the spire, suspended in mid-air, hung a hexagonal grey ball several metres across. The ball was rotating wildly, and every few seconds gave off a burst of vivid blue energy, part of which was channeled into an extractor and funneled up to the ceiling, where it was ejected through a shielded vent into the void of space. A walkway - with handrails for once, Chloe noted with approval - extended into the centre of the chamber, terminating a few metres clear of the spinning ball. 

"What is it with every single fuckin' reactor looking exactly the same?" Chloe mused as they traversed the walkway. "Seriously, they're all big round rooms with a ball of death in the middle."

"I have no idea." Max replied. "Either way, we should set the explosives and get out of here before they catch up to us."

"Done and done." Chloe extracted a sticky explosive from a pouch. No sooner had she done so, however, when the door behind them whisked open, revealing yet more black-clad troopers. 

Max whipped round, her lightsaber blazing into life just in time to stop a burst of laser fire from shearing Chloe in half. 

"Get behind me!" She yelled, furiously deflecting blaster fire. 

Chloe didn't need to be told twice. She dove behind Max, frantically trying to set the explosive for remote detonation. 

"We  _ might  _ have a problem getting out of here!" Max shouted above the cacophony. 

"You think?!" Chloe yelled back. 

"No, I mean we have a  _ big  _ problem!" 

Chloe turned, and peered between the vee of Max's legs back down towards the entrance. 

"Oh." She said. 

Two troopers were in the process of hoisting a heavy blaster cannon onto a mount. With the sheer amount of laser fire that thing had the capacity to unleash, they would be cut to ribbons, even with Max's prodigious abilities. 

"Shit." Chloe swore. 

"Tell me you have more explosives!" Max said, still batting away as many bolts as she could. 

"One more, why?" 

"Exit protocol."

" _ Oh. _ Right, gotcha." Chloe said in understanding. She fished a second explosive out of her pouch and primed it. Then, she hurled the first explosive at the inverted spire, where it stuck handily onto the side. 

"Gonna need you to do your thing with the second one." Chloe said, looking up at the ceiling. 

"Right. Gimme some covering fire."

"On it." Chloe leaned out from behind Max and began unloading her blaster at the troops, forcing the first few of them to scramble for cover, temporarily abandoning the heavy blaster. 

"Now!" Max ordered. 

Chloe threw the second explosive upwards as far as she could. As it reached its apex, Max reached out towards it, and with the Force, willed the bomb towards the excess energy ejection vent. 

"Are you ready?" Max asked once it had been stuck into place. 

Chloe grabbed onto Max's waist. "Ready." She confirmed. 

"On three." Max nodded. "One."

Their helmets folded into place. 

"Two."

They braced their knees. 

"Three!" 

With the power of the Force, Max catapulted both of them into the air. The rush of ascending so suddenly was so intense Chloe almost forgot to activate the detonator. She managed to flick the switch just before they hit the zenith of their upward arc. 

Both explosives detonated simultaneously, throwing the reactor chamber into total chaos. The lowest third of the inverted spire was annihilated, sending the spinning, whirling ball of energy careening off at a rather deadly speed. As luck would have it, it shot straight into the entryway, crushing several troopers into a broken mass of humanoid ragdolls. 

The ejection vent was similarly obliterated. It exploded outward into space, creating a gap in hole in the wall of the reactor chamber, and releasing the excess energy in a bright blue shockwave. More important, however, was the atmosphere that went with it as the entire chamber rapidly depressurised, hurling various bits of debris from the two explosions out into the void. 

Max and Chloe went with the atmosphere, and were violently ejected out into the vacuum. The force of the explosive decompression was such that the two women were torn from each other's grasp and spun into space. 

Max screamed, and squeezed her eyes shut as panic momentarily overloaded her entire sensory system. She fought desperately against the part of her brain that was convinced she was going to die any second. Only seconds passed, but it felt like an eternity as she wrested her fight-or-flight instincts back under her control. 

She opened her eyes, and took an appraisal of her situation. She was drifting away from the station, in the midst of a cloud of debris. She looked around, scanning frantically for Chloe. After a span of heart-stopping seconds, Max found her. Chloe was also tumbling through space, unable to stop herself from spinning. Max instantly saw why: her rocket pack was sparking and smoking, clearly out of action. 

_ Oh.  _ Max thought. She tried activating her own rocket pack, only for it to fail to respond. 

Panic threatened to take her in its iron grip again, but instead of fighting it, she accepted her feelings, and focused on finding a solution. After she did that, everything seemed remarkably clear. She reached out and found Chloe's presence in the Force, and then, she simply willed Chloe over to her, which was in fact much easier than normal due to the lack of air resistance and friction. As Chloe neared her, Max extended a hand, and snatched Chloe out of mid-air. 

"You have no idea how glad I am you can do shit like that." Chloe said, her voice shaking. 

"You're welcome." Max grinned through her helmet's visor. 

“Not gonna lie, death by falling into a black hole isn’t exactly high on my to-do list.” Chloe quipped.

Max nodded. She clicked her commlink twice, signaling fog W4-R3N to pick them up in the  _ Amber Star.  _

"Good thing we have an escape plan." She said. 

"True that." Chloe replied. 

Another, slightly weaker burst of energy lanced out from the station, catching their attention. Max rotated them around to face the station, in time to see the beginning of its inevitable fate. 

"It's starting." Chloe said. 

Without the protection of the gravity field generator, the installation was visibly shuddering as the effects of the multiple black holes quickly took hold. As Max and Chloe watched, its trajectory began to change, with its orbital path curving inwards until the projected periapsis was no longer even a remotely safe distance from the closest black hole, but well over the event horizon. 

As gargantuan as the installation was, with no gravity generators, it was no match against the power of even one black hole, let alone multiple. 

"I wonder if they know what's happening." Max mused. 

Chloe's eyes darkened. "As long as that place is destroyed, I don't care what happens to anyone on it."

"Chloe."

"Okay, okay. If anyone on there is innocent, maybe they should start running."

As if on cue, dozens of ships began pouring out of the half-dozen-or-so hangars dotted across the surface. Within seconds, it was obvious a station-wide evacuation was taking place. The vast majority of the ships took off at the maximum velocity their sublight engines could achieve, before jumping to hyperspace the second they were far enough for their hyperdrives to overcome the pull of the black holes. 

However, four small ships Chloe recognised as snubfighters immediately turned around upon exiting a hangar, and headed straight for the two of them. 

"Max." Chloe swallowed nervously. "I have a bad feeling about this."

"Oh." Max said, seeing the fighters rapidly approaching. "Shit."

She activated her lightsaber once again, and pulled Chloe as close as she could without majorly hampering her mobility. 

The lead fighter accelerated, swooping in for an attack run. 

"Here we go." Max intoned. 

The fighter opened fire, launching two blaster cannon bolts directly at them, one after the other. Max gave herself and Chloe a push, moving them out of the way of the first blast, but was forced to try and deflect the second with her lightsaber. She managed it, but the bolt struck her blade with such strength that it spun her and Chloe violently head-over-heels. Max even had to fight to keep hold of her lightsaber and stop it from being flung off into space. 

"Droid!" Chloe screamed into her commlink, while Max focused on stopping their nausea-inducing rotation. 

Angry astromech chattering burst into her ears, heralding the welcome arrival of the  _ Amber Star.  _ It swooped into view, back-lit by the golden gases of the multitude of accretion disks, laser fire erupting from its forward cannons. Its first volley swept along the hull of the lead fighter, shredding and cockpit and vaporising the pilot before catching a fuel line and annihilating the entire thing in a ball of superheated parts and gas. 

The other three scattered, falling into evasive maneuvers. 

"Yes!" Chloe yelled in triumph. "Kick their asses!" 

"Ren, bring the ship around." Max ordered. "The sooner we're out of here the better."

W4-R3N chirped over the commlink. The  _ Amber Star  _ swung round, approaching them as quickly as the little astromech dared fly. He was only metres away when a sudden salvo of red laser fire hit the ship on its starboard side, peppering across the deflector shields. 

"Abort!" Chloe ordered. 

The ship swung wide, narrowly avoiding clipping the both of them. W4-R3N could be heard angrily complaining at the snubfighters;  _ how dare they be so rude?! _

The remaining three fighters were closing in fast, making any attempt to board the ship an impossibility. One of them edged ahead of his wingmen, clearly eager to destroy the two women and their battered freighter. 

This hubris was his undoing.

A lightsaber came hurtling out of space, having been thrown by Max, it’s trajectory aided with the Force. The icy blue blade sheared through the cockpit canopy, and buried itself into the pilot’s chest. The fighter, now directionless, spun out of control, hurtling towards the nearest black hole. 

Max hurriedly recalled her lightsaber before it was lost forever.

Two fighters remained.

“Ren, try again.” Max said. “I have an idea that might work.”

W4-R3N tootled an acknowledgement, and dutifully swung the  _ Amber Star  _ in a semi-circle, heading back to Max and Chloe.

“Hold on.” Max said to her partner.

Chloe nodded, and looped her arms around Max’s waist, gripping as tightly as she could without causing Max pain.

“Fly past us.” Max ordered the astromech. “I’ll follow.”

“You’ll follow?” Chloe asked. “What’s ‘you’ll foll- _ OH FUCK!” _

As soon as W4-R3N had flown by, Max had reached out and gripped the ship with the Force. Combined with the total lack of friction in the vacuum of space had the effect of yanking them after the  _ Amber Star,  _ similar to using a tether or grapnel line. 

Max concentrated, stretching her focus to the limit as she pulled herself and Chloe closer and closer to the freighter’s rear airlock and boarding ramp. She prayed the astromech would have the sense not to slow down, as the two snubfighters left were still hot on their tail. She grunted with the effort, but managed to bring them within touching distance.

“Open the airlock!” She forced through gritted teeth.

W4-R3N beeped again, and the airlock slid open. With a pained shout, Max dragged her and Chloe through, collapsing onto the floor as the artificial gravity took hold. Chloe wasted no time, and raced through the inner airlock up to the cockpit. Max followed a few moments later, having struggled to pick herself up. When she arrived in the cockpit, Chloe had already taken hold of the controls.

“Buckle your ass into that seat.” The pilot commanded. “I’mma show these assholes how to fly.”

Max was all too happy to obey her. She slumped into the co-pilot’s seat, exhausted.

Chloe immediately threw the ship into the tightest turn she could manage. G-forces pressed the both of them into their seats, the inertial dampeners straining to mitigate the punishing effects of gravity. When they came out of the turn, Max saw Chloe had pointed them back at the installation.

It was noticeably picking up speed as it fell towards the ravenous, infinite gape of the Maw. Being a space station and as such not meant for the stresses of high-speed space travel, this meant it’s structural integrity was steadily failing. As Max and Chloe watched, a large section on its port side crumpled and broke off from the main body.

Chloe, of course, aimed the  _ Amber Star  _ directly at it. 

“Uh.” Max said, and pointed at the debris sailing towards them at a frightening speed.

“Relax. I got this.” Chloe said confidently.

Right as the debris was about to annihilate them - to Max’s horror - Chloe yanked the stick to the side, twisting the  _ Amber Star  _ ninety degrees. The freighter slipped through a gap in the superstructure, with only a couple of metres to spare either side. 

The fighters pursuing them weren’t so lucky. One of them panicked, and tried to bug out, only to clip his wingman and send them careening into unforgiving durasteel. Both ships vanished in balls of flame and parts.

“Woo!” Chloe exclaimed in victory. “Still the best pilot in the Galaxy. Suck it, losers.” 

Max grinned. “Humble as ever.”

Chloe waved a hand in a gesture that clearly said  _ ‘oh you’ _ She brought the ship around behind the falling mass of the installation in order to give her and Max the best view possible.

They watched in silence as the station picked up more and more speed. More and more of it kept falling off, but the general core structure remained intact.

“It’s a hell of a funeral boat.” Max quietly remarked.

“It is.” Chloe agreed. “I know she’d love it.”

As they watched, the station plowed into the accretion disk, carving out a massive furrow into the golden, whirling gases. Moments later, the entire thing ignited in a massive blaze of fiery energy, suddenly giving it the appearance of an astonishingly bright comet. 

And then, just as suddenly, it was gone, vanishing into literal nothingness as the installation crossed the event horizon and was dragged down into the singularity. 

Max took Chloe’s hand.

Chloe squeezed back.

Neither of them said anything. They didn’t need to. 

Chloe began to cry, weeping openly. Max shared in her grief, Chloe’s feelings pouring across their bond in the Force. 

They faced the end of Rachel’s final voyage as one, united in solidarity.

* * *

Hours later, Max walked into the living quarters, bearing a steaming cup of caf. 

“Here,” She said, “Thought you could use a pick-me-up.”

“Thanks.” Chloe said. She was sat hunched over a table, with a blanket draped around her shoulders. She took the proffered cup, breathed in the smell, then took a long sip. At the end, she sighed, and closed her eyes. “That’s good.” She said “Real good.”

“You’re welcome.” Max replied. She sidled in net to Chloe, and wrapped the blanket around herself, sharing in Chloe’s warmth.

For a while, they simply sat, content to just be with one another.

“I think she would’ve liked you, y’know?” Chloe said.

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” The pilot nodded. “Probably a little too much.” She looked Max up and down. “You’re definitely her type.”

Max giggled. “Attention from one woman is enough for me right now.” She joked. “I don’t think I could handle two.”

“Good, because I like having you all to myself.” Chloe said, a smile tugging at her lips. 

Max leaned in and kissed her, letting her lips linger against Chloe’s for a long moment.

They rested their foreheads together. Silence fell once more.

“Thanks for getting me to do this.” Chloe said quietly. 

“It was nothing-” Max began.

“No. It wasn’t.” Chloe interrupted. “I needed this, and you had the sense to give me the push I needed, or maybe subconsciously wanted.”

Max kissed her on the cheek. “Anything for the woman I love.”

“I’m not sure if I feel … better.” Chloe continued. “But I feel like - like something’s shifted, or changed. Maybe like a bit of the weight is gone. I don’t really know how to describe it.”

“That sounds natural to me.” Max said. “You’re still grieving. It’s healthy.”

“Mm.” Chloe made an agreeable noise. Then, “How would you feel about a vacation? Just you and me, on a beach somewhere, sipping cocktails.”

Max thought for a moment. “I think that sounds perfect.”

“Good, because I’ve always wanted to take a pretty girl on the beach.” Chloe winked at Max.

“Don’t you mean  _ to  _ a beach?” Max corrected her.

“I know what I said.” Chloe stated. “And I can’t think of anyone better to go with than my partner in crime.”

“ _ Partner in crime.”  _ Max echoed. She kissed Chloe again, relishing the warmth and softness of Chloe’s lips. “Makes me sound like a scoundrel.”

Chloe smiled. “ _ My  _ scoundrel.”

Max smiled back.

“I like the sound of that.” 

**Author's Note:**

> How's that for an impromptu burial at sea? I tried to make it as respectful as I could, and consistent with this AU's personalities. But if it missed the mark, please don't hesitate to tell me.
> 
> Also, I managed to stick to the promise of making this one shorter. Just about. Yes I know it's 8.8k words, don't @ me.
> 
> And hey, as of the time of this writing on 03/11/19, this series is three years old! Happy birthday, Max Starfield! Thanks to everyone who's stuck around to read this series. You all mean the world to me. 
> 
> Onto the future: the first chapter of the sequel hopefully won't be far away. I'm aiming to publish it before the end of the year, so I can hit that "coming in 2019" statement, but if I don't manage that, please accept my pre-emptive apologies. Anyways, how about I tell you guys the title of the sequel? 
> 
> It's called "The Mandalore Catalyst". Yeah, we're heading to Mandalore. Get hype.
> 
> MTFBHWY.


End file.
